


Veritaserum

by owlinaminor



Category: Free!, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, M/M, peer mediation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-19
Updated: 2014-12-21
Packaged: 2018-03-02 06:34:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2802974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlinaminor/pseuds/owlinaminor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“So, what’ll it be?” Makoto asks.</p>
<p>If looks could kill, Makoto would have been impaled, drawn and quartered, and devoured by sharks at least three times by now – but Haruka takes the vial, tilts his head back, and drinks all of the veritaserum.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. administration and side effects (Makoto)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dicaeopolis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dicaeopolis/gifts), [Mahlerman](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mahlerman/gifts).



> this is a holiday present for my two friends nikki (Mahlerman) and becky (dicaeopolis.) every year, I write fics as presents for my friends, and this year, nikki requested a soumako hogwarts au because she loves hogwarts aus a possibly inhuman amount. then, when I told becky about the request, she asked me to write her the rinharu part of that hogwarts au. the result is a fic in two chapters, the first soumako and the second rinharu. so, enjoy!
> 
> (also, before anyone asks: they can swim at hogwarts because, as dumbledore tells us in a very potter musical, hogwarts has a hidden swimming pool.)

Makoto Tachinbana loves his job as a peer mediator.

He’s loved it ever since he invented the position three years ago, when he overheard a couple of third years arguing over Muggle rights, making the issue much more intense and personal than it needed to be, and stepped in to help them settle their differences with kind words, smiles, and a dash of light magic.  Professor Xandria of Psychology and Muddle Studies was so impressed by the situation that she gave him the idea to start a new club – one that she’d seen at Muggle high schools and colleges throughout the country and one that, in her opinion, Hogwarts was sorely lacking.

So, Makoto did some advertising, got a group together, and the ten students he recruited (two each from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin, and four from Hufflepuff) went through training to help their friends resolve issues.  It hadn’t been an easy job – Makoto’s been taunted, laughed at, and targeted by more minor curses than he can count – but he’s helped a lot of people.  If you ask him, there’s no better feeling than watching two friends genuinely apologize, smiling with promises to treat each other better in the future.  He’s never once doubted that it’s exactly the job he should be doing.

Well, never once ... Until now.

“Makoto, I don’t see why this is necessary,” Sousuke Yamazaki says.

(He’s not a bad guy, Yamazaki – Makoto doesn’t know him too well, only sees him occasionally in classes, at the pool, or when Rin invites both of them to something.  And Makoto’d be lying if he said he didn’t notice Yamazaki’s sudden growth spurt in the fifth year, scrawny to broad-shouldered, just like that – and his face certainly isn’t bad either.  But that’s not what Makoto should be thinking about right now, so he decidedly _doesn’t._ )

Haruka Nanase doesn’t agree verbally, but he crosses his arms tightly across his chest and hits Makoto with a glare.  Makoto supposes he should be glad they’re at least agreeing on _something_ , but this isn’t really the best thing for them to agree on.

“Look, the two of you clearly have some kind of issue,” Makoto explains, stretching his arms out across the table and knotting his fingers together.  “I don’t know why exactly you nearly started a fight in the library yesterday, but we’re going to find that out now, then we’re going to talk about it, and we’re going to resolve the conflict.”

Haruka raises one eyebrow, a clear _Do we_ really _have to?_

“Haru, use your words,” Makoto chides him.  “I may be able to understand you, but Yamazaki can’t.”

Haruka rolls his eyes.  Makoto crosses his arms and faces down his friend like a lion tamer facing a wild beast.  Haruka leans forward, eyes narrowing.  Yamazaki watches the entire exchange, head swiveling back and forth like a spectator at a tennis match.

After a minute or so of silence, he finally speaks up.  “Fascinating as this is to watch, I’m ready to talk, if Nanase is.”

Makoto looks at Haruka, trying to implore that the faster he decides to talk, the faster he can go swimming – which is the only way to motivate the guy, really.

Haruka lets just a few more seconds of silence fall before he relents.  “Fine.”

“Great!” Makoto grins, relieved.  “Yamazaki, why don’t you start?  What are your honest feelings toward Haruka at this time?”

“To be honest ...”  Yamazaki runs a hand through his hair – and Makoto’s attention is drawn, strangely, to his forearm, strong and powerful.  Makoto tries to tell himself to focus, now is _no time_ to be distracted, especially by a guy he barely knows, but Yamazaki keeps stalling, clearly not as ready to talk as he’d claimed – he stretches his arms up, then back, and Makoto has to concentrate really hard on the most disgusting potions recipes he can think of to get his mind back on track.

“Um, sorry,” Yamazaki finally says with a nervous laugh.  “Just trying to figure out what I was going to say.”

“That’s okay, go ahead whenever you’re ready.”  Makoto leans forward a little, trying to seem as friendly and ready to listen as possible.  Haruka leans back.

“Well, then, to be honest, I’m not really mad at Nanase because of any problem I have with him, personally,” Yamazaki begins.  “I don’t know him very well – only that he’s a good swimmer and decent wizard, and mostly keeps to himself.  _But_ ,” he adds, before Haruka’s ego can grow too much, “I do have a problem with what he’s doing to Rin.”

Wait, what?  Doing to Rin?  If there’s something funny going on between Haruka and Rin, that’s news to Makoto.

“What do you mean, exactly?” he asks.

“Alright, that probably wasn’t the best choice of words,” Yamazaki admits.  “Sorry.  What I mean is – Rin’s my best friend, but he and Nanase have something different, something I can’t touch.  The two of them swim more than everyone else at this school combined – they motivate each other, push each other, force each other to be the best they can.  And not just in swimming, but in class, too.  I’ve heard Rin talk about Nanase – like, without him, Rin wouldn’t be the person he is.”

Makoto glances at Haruka to see how he’s taking this.  His expression hasn’t changed, and his arms are still crossed against his chest, but Makoto thinks he can catch a glimpse of the slightest red tint to his cheeks.  _Interesting._

“But now,” Yamazaki goes on, “now that we’re seventh years, we need to decide what our careers are going to be.  Rin wants to swim, but he can’t do it alone.  I’m not going into that world with him – I have my family’s business to take over, and, anyway, I’m not the one he really wants to swim with.  But Nanase –”  Yamazaki turns to directly address Haruka now.  “– you don’t have any idea, do you?  You don’t want to compete.  Or if you do, you haven’t said anything.  Time’s running out, y’know.  I wouldn’t care if you were just ruining your own future, but you’re ruining Rin’s, too.  You can’t do that to him.  Don’t you care?”

Haruka looks down at the table – and Makoto notices that he’s squeezing his arms so hard, his skin is going blue.  He still doesn’t say anything as Yamazaki’s yelling just gets louder and louder.

“Don’t you care about him at all?”

Silence falls – like an entire winter’s worth or snow falling at once, hiding everything beneath blank white.  Makoto suddenly isn’t sure what to do.  Yamazaki’s outburst was everything he needed to hear (and part of him is more than a little impressed by the show of passion, more than a little touched by how much this guy cares for his friend) but peer mediation is a two-way street, and they’ll get nowhere unless Haruka talks.

Which, judging by his complete silence now, is about as likely as the headmaster breaking out into a Katy Perry song.

Makoto’s got a couple of tricks up his robes, sure – spells he’s never used, last resorts he learned in training – but he’d really prefer not to use them on his friend.  Haruka never opens up – and yet, if he’d try for anyone, it would be Makoto.  Couldn’t hurt to ask, right?

“Haru?” Makoto asks gently.  “Is there anything you want to tell Sousuke after hearing that?”

Haruka stands abruptly, his chair clattering to the floor behind him, and makes for the door.

Makoto really wishes he didn’t have to do this.

“ _Petrificus totalus!_ ” he shouts, wand in hand.

And, as quickly as he’d started, Haruka stops in his tracks, completely frozen.  Yamazaki looks at Makoto, eyes wide and expression unreadable.

“Sorry, Haru,” Makoto says.  He gets up and walks over to Haruka, then picks him up and sets him back down next to the table.  “I wish I hadn’t had to do that, but Yamazaki’s right – you can’t run from your problems.  Now, you have two choices,” he continues, sitting down and rummaging through his backpack for a small vial.  “Either you can talk about your feelings willingly, or I’m going to have to use this.”  Makoto holds up the vial, gleaming golden in the afternoon sunlight coming in through te window.

He waves his wand, Haruka unfreezes, then promptly gives Makoto his most vengeful glare.  He does sit back down, though, which Makoto counts as a victory.

“So, what’ll it be?” Makoto asks.

If looks could kill, Makoto would have been impaled, drawn and quartered, and devoured by sharks at least three times by now – but Haruka takes the vial, tilts his head back, and drinks all of the veritaserum.

Nothing happens for a long moment, and then –

“Sousuke Yamazaki, you have no right to tell me how to live my life,” Haruka says.  Makoto stares at him, amazed – that was the longest sentence he’s heard from Haru unrelated to swimming.  And he doesn’t stop there.  “We’re not friends.  You don’t know me.  The water may tolerate you, but it doesn’t speak to you the way it does to me.  You –”

“Wait, the water speaks to you?” Yamazaki interrupts.

“Of course,” Haruka replies.  “The water is both infinite and powerful.  Submerge yourself, open yourself to it, and it will speak to you.  All my magic works best in the water – not that I use it to swim faster, but it helps me to feel the currents, the waves, the way to victory.  I always know exactly who I am in the water.”

Fascinating as it is to hear Haruka wax poetic about swimming (and Makoto makes a mental note to do research on magic abilities being tied to water), there are issues that need to be settled here.

“Okay, but can you talk about what Yamazaki mentioned?” Makoto asks.  “About Rin, and about your future?”

“I’ve never thought much about the future, really,” Haruka answers.  “I always used to tell myself – when you’re ten, they call you a prodigy, when you’re fifteen, a genius, and once you hit twenty, just an ordinary person.  Which would be fine, you know?  Whatever.  But now, Rin keeps talking about going to a Muggle college for swimming, or starting an all-wizard team, or just trying to compete in any way we can, and ... I never used to want that, but now I think I might.  I like swimming, and I like swimming with Rin – do I want to compete?  I don’t’ think I want the pressure, but I think I want to get better ... I’m just kind-of confused, I guess.”

Makoto glances at Yamazaki, needing to know that he isn’t completely imagining this.  Yamazaki returns the look, affirming that, yeah, this is real, Haruka Nanase is actually talking about his feelings.  Under the influence of truth serum, but still.

Yamazaki gives Makoto a small smile, which is somehow all the reassurance he needs to keep doing his job, surreal as the situation is.

“Look, Haru,” Makoto says, “your concerns are all definitely valid, and I agree that Yamazaki has no right to tell you what to do with your life.  But you should listen to what he has to say, as Rin’s friend and as yours.  Think of this as a wake-up call to think more seriously about your future – because Yamazaki is right, you don’t have much time, and your decision will affect other people as much as it affects you.”

Haruka nods slowly.  “Thanks, Makoto.  You’re really smart – have I ever told you that?”

Makoto is starting to really like this new Haruka.  “You haven’t.”

“Well, you are,” Haruka replies simply, shrugging.  “And you’re a good friend.  I should probably tell you that more often.”

Haru probably won’t, Makoto knows – but he’s definitely going to savor this moment.  He grins widely, then, remembering that the peer mediation session isn’t quite over yet, says, “Okay, both of you have really gone far in understanding each other, which is great.  So, if you can apologize, then I think we’ll be done here.”

“Nanase,” Yamazaki starts, “I apologize for accusing you of not caring about Rin, and for starting that fight with you in the library.  I hope you figure out what you want to do.”

“I’m sorry for being rude to you,” Haruka replies.  “And I’ll try.”

“I appreciate the apology, but ...” Yamazaki hesitates, glances at Makoto, then says, “I don’t think I’m really the one you need to talk to.”

For a moment, Haurka just looks at him, confused.  And then, it must dawn on him, because he stands up, pushing his chair back fast enough that it almost falls over, and starts to sprint out of the room.

This time, Makoto lets him go.

“He’s at the pool!” Yamazaki calls after him.

The door bangs shut behind Haruka.

Makoto looks at Yamazaki and grins.  “I’ve never had to use veritaserum before, but that worked really well,” he says.

“Yeah,” Yamazaki agrees.  “I think that was more words than I’ve heard from him in seven years at Hogwarts.  Well,” he adds, standing up and grabbing his bag, “I’ve gotta go.  But thank you for this.  Like Nanase said – you’re a good guy, Tachibana.”

And he leaves before Makoto can figure out how to tell him that he’s a good guy, too.

* * *

The next few days, Makoto finds himself paying attention to Sousuke Yamazaki a lot more.

In class, his eyes wander to the part of the room where the Slytherins are huddled together, seeking out bright green eyes and a confident smile.  He watches when Sousuke stretches – and he stretches _often_ , muscles contracting in and out in a fascinating kind of rhythm.  He sees conversations from across the room, and tries to guess what Sousuke might be saying.  He sits awake at night in his room, arms crossed behind his head and eyes staring up at the ceiling, wondering if Sousuke might be wondering about him.

Somehow, over the course of half an hour of peer mediation, the guy went from Yamazaki – someone that Makoto barely knows – to Sousuke – someone that Makoto knows a little and wants to know much more.  He’s not sure how he’s going to accomplish that, but he’ll have to try.

* * *

Makoto gets back to his dorm after a long afternoon of studying in the library to find someone waiting for him.

He goes to knock out the password, balancing his textbooks in the crook of one arm, and Rin emerges from the shadows next to the entrance like some kind of poltergeist, arms crossed and expression menacing.

“What the –”  Makoto jumps a meter in the air.  “What are you doing there?”

Rin steps in front of the entrance, effectively blocking Makoto’s path – a pissed-off door guard.  He stares Makoto down for a few seconds, then, when Makoto doesn’t seem to get the message (Makoto can only speak Haruka, not Rin), he demands:

“What the hell did you do to Sousuke?”

Makoto just spent five hours memorizing spells, reading through textbooks, and practicing wand motions until his wrist felt like it was ready to fall off.  He really doesn’t have the strength for this right now.

“I didn’t do anything to him,” he says.  “Can you please let me through?  I’m exhausted.”

Makoto reaches out to knock the password that will open the dorm, but Rin moves quickly, so he ends up hitting Rin’s shoulder instead.

“You must’ve done _something_ ,” Rin insists.  “A love potion?  Or an enchantment?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Makoto replies.

Rin scowls, clearly not believing him.  “Then why won’t he shut up about you?  _Hey, Rin, don’t you think Tachibana looks great today?  Hey, Rin, you’re friends with Tachibana, what kind of food does he like?  Hey, Rin, Tachibana and Nanase are working together over there, what do you think they’re talking about?_ ”  Rin lists the examples as though they’ve personally offended him somehow.  “What the fuck, man?”

Makoto stares at him for a few seconds – wonders first if Rin might be joking, then how he could possibly have found out, then what it means if he _isn’t_ joking – and then says, “Okay, Rin, I didn’t do anything, alright?  Just get out of the way or I will literally fall asleep on you.”

Rin steps aside, still glowering like a cat after its favorite toy is taken away.  Makoto pushes past him to open the door, still feigning confusion – but the moment he’s inside, his face breaks out into a huge grin.

* * *

A few days later, Makoto gets a note in Advanced Charms, passed up from the back row, second seat from the left:

_mt:_

_meet me at the astronomy tower tonight at eight. ~~i’ll show~~   i promise you won’t regret it._

_\-- sy_

Makoto reads it once, reads it again, ignores Haruka’s unspoken question of why he’s grinning, then folds the note up and slips it in his pocket.

* * *

A few years ago, Makoto would have balked at the thought of sneaking out of his dorm past dinner – but years of being friends with Haruka, Nagisa, and Rei have changed that.

Now, it’s almost second nature for him to close the door quietly behind him, avoid the creaking boards in the hallway, stuff his flashlight in his robes when he hears any noises from around him.  He makes his way to the astronomy tower in silence – well, silence except for his heart, which seems to be under the impression that he’s running some kind of a marathon.  Makoto tries to tell it to shhh, be _chill_ , but apparently it’s not getting the message.

He’s surprised Sousuke can’t hear it when he gets to the top of the tower – Sousuke actually seems almost surprised to see Makoto at all, going by the way he startles when Makoto says hi.

“Um, hey,” Sousuke replies, reaching a hand up to absentmindedly run through his hair.  “You came.”

“Yeah.”  Makoto smiles.  “Can’t resist a secret meeting on the astronomy tower, that’s me.”

Sousuke smiles back, but it’s a little forced – like he’s nervous.  He takes a step to the right, revealing a blanket spread out over the floor with a picnic basket on top of it.  “I, um, brought food,” he explains.  “So, you can sit, if you want.”

Makoto takes the invitation.  After a moment, Sousuke sits down beside him – the basket in between them – and starts taking out food.  Sousuke has prepared an entire picnic: sandwiches, fresh pastries stolen from the kitchens, and a thermos of hot tea.  It all smells delicious, and Makoto suddenly realizes that he studied so much that afternoon, he forgot to go to dinner.  His stomach rumbles in anticipation.

Sousuke hears the impatient rumbling and laughs, handing Makoto a sandwich.  He tries it – and maybe he’s just really hungry, but Makoto would easily call this the best sandwich he’s ever eaten.

For a few moments, there’s silence as they eat, neither of them looking at each other.  It’s awkward, with nervous energy between them – _like a first date,_ Makoto thinks suddenly.  (Not that he’s had many first dates, but.)  Makoto doesn’t mind silence, but he hates awkward silence, so he thinks hard for prospective conversation topics, chowing down on the sandwich as though if he bites hard enough, it’ll somehow give him ideas.

Finally, he comes up with, “So, our friends really aren’t great at the whole secret dating thing, are they?”

“You mean Rin and Nanase?” Sousuke asks.

Makoto gives him an incredulous look, as if to say, _who else could I mean?_

“Yeah, they’re pretty terrible,” Sousuke says, grinning.  “Rin won’t tell me what happened at the pool after our peer mediation thing, but it must’ve been pretty great, because he basically hasn’t stopped smiling.”

“Haruka keeps sneaking out of our dorm late at night, like he thinks I won’t notice.”  Makoto picks up the thermos and tries the tea Sousuke made.  It’s sweet, and still warm.

“You think that’s bad?  Rin sings when he’s in a good mood.  Like, blasts music in our room and _sings_ , and he’s not even that good – and now that he’s in a good mood basically all the time, it’s impossible to concentrate on anything.” Sousuke sighs and shakes his head sadly.

Makoto moves a couple centimeters closer to give Sousuke a sympathetic pat on the arm.  “The honeymoon period’s the worst for us, I guess.”

“For us and our schoolwork,” Sousuke corrects.

“You said it.  Hey, speaking of schoolwork, am I the only one who thinks that Herbology is, like, _the_ most stressful class?”

“More than Potions or DA?  I don’t know.”

“It’s just, in Herbology, all of your projects are raising plants, and if you do something wrong, then you’ve killed this living thing that was depending on you for its survival, and I think that’s just so sad.”

“... Yeah, Makoto, I think you’re the only one who thinks that.”

The two of them keep talking as the night goes on, telling each other stories and making fun of their friends, then sharing interests and hopes for the future, and then – at least for Makoto – saying things that they’ve never told anyone else aloud.  Slowly, almost imperceptibly, they move closer on the blanket, pushing the basket aside so that they can cross the space.

The stars shine bright up above.  Makoto never took astronomy, so all he really knows about stars is that they’re faraway and they’re beautiful.  He likes to think they’re watching him, and it’s strangely comforting – to think that there is something keeping an eye out for him, helping him to figure out what he needs to do and then do it, helping him to be brave.

And finally, in the middle of Sousuke’s story about the first time he tried ice cream, Makoto blurts out, “Is this a date?”

Sousuke is silent for a long moment, looking up.  “Why?  Do you want it to be?” he asks.

“Maybe,” Makoto admits.

“So, then ...”  Sousuke moves even closer, then turns around so that he’s facing Makoto.  “Would it be okay if I kissed you?”

Makoto looks at him – so confident, so sure, but with no smile on his face, now – green eyes strangely anxious and jaw poised for rejection.  Which is, honestly – well, Makoto thought Sousuke was smarter than that.

Makoto closes the remaining distance and kisses him, hard.

* * *

“So, is that a yes?” Sousuke asks, a few breathless moments later.

“Did you really need to ask?”

“No, I just wanted to hear you say it.”

“Well, okay, then.  Ye –”

And before he can finish, Sousuke kisses him again – and they fall back against the blanket, nothing between them and the stars.


	2. symptoms and after-effects (Rin)

Rin hates waking up early.

As a seventh-year, he’s organized his schedule so that he only has a class before nine A.M. on one day of the week, but oh, how he loathes that one day.  Tuesday morning is evil.  Tuesday morning is possessed by demons.  Tuesday morning can go fuck itself up the ass with a rake.

But alas, Rin has to deal with those dreaded Tuesday mornings at least until the end of the school year, so he’s designed a special ritual to help him get through them.  First, he rolls out of bed – the knock on the floor is a good wake-up call.  Second, he lies on the floor for a little bit.  Third, Sousuke yells at him until he gets up off the floor and gets on his robes.  (Sousuke is actually a morning person, curse him forever.)  Fourth, Rin stumbles out of his dorm and down to the dining hall, where the house elves have started serving this amazing muggle invention called “coffee.”  After two cups of coffee, sometimes three, Rin is finally ready to go to class.

This particular morning, though, Rin is interrupted in the middle of step four by someone standing directly outside of the entrance to the Slytherin dorm, arms crossed and a glare on his face as though he’s ready to curse Rin and his entire family into newts.

“Haruka?” Rin asks.  “What are you doing here?”

Haruka’s eyes narrow, piercing and very blue.  “You know.”

Rin’s not usually at his brightest on Tuesday mornings, so it takes him a few seconds to remember.  “Is this about that fight in the library?  Because that was Sousuke, not me, and I have no idea why he got so pissed at you.”

“You do,” Haruka replies.  “It’s your fault.”

“What?” Rin sputters.  “How is it _my_ fault?  It’s not like I’m some kind of medieval maiden and he’s, like, defending my honor or some shit –”

“He said it was about you,” Haruka says.  And in a complete sentence, to boot – if Haru speaks in complete sentences, it’s usually pretty important.

Rin hasn’t had any coffee yet, but he’s somehow very awake, anyway.

“I guess I’m sorry, then,” Rin tells Haruka with a sigh.  “I’ll talk to him.  If you want?” he adds, when Haru doesn’t seem very pleased by that answer.

Much as he’s known Haruka for a long time, since before Hogwarts, when they swam together at that club in elementary school, Rin has a hard time figuring out what he’s thinking sometimes.  It’s hard to be friends with someone who communicates through glances and swim races – Makoto can translate pretty well, but Makoto’s not around all of the time.  And if Haruka agrees to help Rin with his plans for the future, then Makoto won’t be around much at all ... But Rin doesn’t know what to do.  Maybe he should ask Makoto to give him lessons in the language of Haruka Nanase.

“No.”  Haruka shakes his head.  “I have to.”

“You have to ... What?” Rin asks, confused.  “Talk to Sousuke?”

Haruka nods.  “Mandatory peer mediation.”

Oh, right.  Three years ago, Makoto and Professor Xandria started this weird club based on some muggle trend in which students help other students resolve their issues with each other.  Makoto and the other wizards he recruited have done a lot to prevent fights from getting serious, but Rin has no idea what they actually do at their peer mediating sessions, or whatever they’re called.  He guesses that Haruka and Sousuke are about to find out – their almost-fight in the library definitely called for a session, he doesn’t know why he didn’t think of that before.

“Well, that’ll be kind-of awkward, won’t it?” Rin says, trying to lighten the mood.  “You, Makoto, and Sousuke stuck in a little room, talking about your problems ...”

Haruka just frowns.

“Okay, I’m sorry.”  Rin holds up his hands in a gesture of surrender.  “I’ll try and help, alright?  I’ll try and talk to him.  I just ... I’m not really sure what you want from me,” he finally admits, looking down at the floor.  There are some fascinating patterns in the carpet here, and Rin studies them for a few seconds, waiting for some kind of answer, any kind.

When he finally looks up again, Haruka is walking away.  Rin sighs, and starts off in the opposite direction – he’s probably going to be late for his class.

* * *

 Not many people know that Hogwarts has a hidden swimming pool.  It’s only opened every few years, when a student (or students) shows an interest in swimming, but spells set up by professors years ago keep the pool clean for anyone who might want to use it.  The pool is located beneath the Great Hall, with an entrance concealed in the first floor hallway near the potions rooms.  The door is a painting of the ocean, opened with a simple password: “For the team.”

When Haruka was a first-year, cooped up in class and missing the sea back home, he decided that he needed to swim somehow.  So, he snuck out of the school early one morning, stripped down to his swimsuit, and dove into the Great Lake.

Nobody had told him about the Grindylows.

After rescuing Haruka, treating him for hypothermia, and giving him a very strongly worded lecture about the importance of staying away from places that were off limits for good reason, the headmaster gave Haruka the password to the swimming pool – on the condition that he would form a team to share it with.  And then, after a couple of weeks of Haru skipping out on studying with Makoto to go swimming, Haru’s friends forced him to share the password with them, too.

The team practices informally once or twice a week and holds a swimming competition every June.  Rin’s the official captain, and he’s _this close_ to breaking the record of most hours spent practicing per month – the record set by Haruka, of course.

The day that his two best friends go to mandatory peer mediation, Rin heads to the pool.  He wants to get a couple of hours of practice in – he’s going to beat Haruka’s freestyle time the next time they race, he’s determined to.  ( _Not that it really matters, if he’s not even going to swim with you any more,_ a tiny voice in Rin’s head whispers, but he ignores it.)

Rin strips off his robes and jumps into the pool. He swims as hard as he can the moment he hits the water – which isn’t good for him, he knows, he’s supposed to warm up first, but he’s never exactly been the kind of person to do as he was supposed to.  Wizards aren’t supposed to love sports outside of quidditch, wizards aren’t supposed to want to join a muggle team, wizards aren’t supposed to wish they’d been born a little bit more normal.  Those are just Rin’s problems.

He swims freestyle, then butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and freestyle again, only stopping for breaks when he feels like he simply can’t go on any more.  Rin isn’t good at much – his grades aren’t great, even when he works hard, and while his friends think he’s a decent captain, most of the other people at Hogwarts just find him strange – but he’s good at this.  Swimming.  It’s natural to be in the water, racing as fast as he can, competing with his friends.  He loves the feeling of beating his time, and the feeling of all of his friends working together to race the best medley relay Hogwarts has ever seen.

That’s why he wants to do this as long as he can, even outside of Hogwarts.  Rin’s ready to take any job that brings him closer to that feeling he loves, whether it’s in the magical world or not.  He just ... He’s not sure he can do it alone.

Rin stops after twelve laps of hard freestyle, panting, to find that he’s no longer alone in the pool.  Haruka is standing on the side, watching him with an unreadable expression in his eyes.

“Um, hi,” Rin says, slightly uncomfortable with the thought of someone else watching one of his solo practices.  “How long have you been there?”

“I don’t know,” Haruka replies.  “Not too long, I think.  I’m sorry for not telling you I was here when I came in – I just didn’t want to disturb you.  You looked like you were working really hard.”

... Okay, something is definitely off, here.  Rin hasn’t heard Haruka say this many sentences at the same time since he was practicing for an oral report last semester, and even then, most of them weren’t complete.

“Are you okay?” he asks slowly.

Haruka shrugs, then sits down on the deck of the pool.  He must have taken his robes off when he came in, because he’s down to only his swimsuit right now.  His legs dangle in the water at the shallow end, near where Rin’s standing.  “Yeah.  I think I am,” he says.  “Makoto gave me some veritaserum as part of the peer mediation, so it’s kind-of weird, but not in a bad way, I think.”

Truth serum.  Okay.  Rin’s never heard of Makoto having to use truth serum during a session before – but then again, Haruka’s not a normal student.

“Anyway,” Haruka goes on, “I came down here because I need to say something to you.  I apologized to Yamazaki, but he said I needed to apologize to you more, and he’s right.  Rin, I’m sorry for not being honest with you.  I’ve thought a lot about what you said – about the two of us going to compete in muggle swim tournaments, then maybe starting a swim club for wizard kids, or something like that, instead of just doing some magical jobs.  And I want to keep swimming, and I want to swim with you, but I don’t know if I can compete.  For me, it’s never been about competition, but for you, it always has been, so I just don’t know ... I don’t know if I can do it.”

Rin has to think for a moment before he can answer.  The whole idea of Haruka talking about his feelings is so surreal, and yet here he is, speaking in whole paragraphs as though it’s the most natural thing in the world.  To be honest, Rin likes the old, monosyllabic Haruka better – but he knows that this is the best time, if not the only time, he can actually find out what is in Haru’s head.

“I think you can,” Rin says.  “I mean, you were the one who found out about this pool in the first place.  I think you’re really brave, Haru – and smarter than you realize, and a good friend to everyone, and you work so hard, it makes the rest of us want to work harder.  I think the two of us can really change things.”  He takes a few steps closer to Haruka as he starts to get more excited about his ideas.  “We can bring the muggle world and the magical world closer together!  And we can be such good swimmers, and maybe go to the Olympics, and do all of this amazing stuff – don’t you want to?”

“I ... I do,” Haruka admits.  “You see so much potential in us, and I want to see it, too.  I’m just scared that we’ll fail.  That _I’ll_ fail.  What if we get to the Olympics, and I stand up on the starting block, and when the whistle blows, I can’t move?  What then?  I don’t want to go so far only to fail.”

“What, and you think I’m _not_ scared?” Rin asks.  “I’m terrified.  I don’t want to fail, either.  But we haven’t failed yet, right?  We’re the best swimmers Hogwarts has ever seen, so why not be the best swimmers England has ever seen?  The best swimmers the _world_ has ever seen?  I think we can do it, if we do it together.”

The vision stretches out in front of Rin, all tinged in golden: him and Haruka, standing at the Olympics, medals around their necks and cheering crowds screaming their names.  He’s wanted that since the very first time he jumped into a pool, and every time he races, it seems closer and closer.

And then, he looks ahead of him, now – looks ahead at Haru, sitting on the edge of the pool, legs in the water but the rest of him dry.  Haru seems so small, staring down at the water with his hands crossed against his chest and goose bumps raised on his arms.

“I don’t know if I think that,” Haruka says.  He hesitates for a moment, then adds, “But I care about you a lot, Rin.  I don’t want to go anywhere if you’re not there with me.”

Somehow, that’s all Rin needs – all he needs to cross the last couple of steps to the water’s edge, cup his hands around Haruka’s face, and kiss him.

Haruka is still for a moment, and then he kisses back – and soon, it’s hot and passionate, Rin’s hands still on Haru’s face and Haru’s hands coming up to rest on Rin’s waist, the universe shrinking and shrinking until it’s only the two of them.

Rin pulls away only when he absolutely _has_ to breathe.

“I don’t want to go anywhere if you’re not there with me, too,” he says, breathless.

And then, he pulls Haruka into the pool with him.

* * *

 A few minutes (or, possibly, hours – time is fluid when you’re hardcore making out with the guy you’ve been pining after for basically years) later, Rin asks, “So, are we dating now, or what?”

Haruka shrugs.  “Sure.”

Rin grins – looks like the truth serum wore off.  Haruka’s back to his normal, obfuscating self.  (But Rin’s not so sure he still wants translation lessons from Makoto.)

“No, I mean,” Rin says, leaning in to press kisses along the line of Haruka’s collarbone, “do you _want_ to be dating now?  Steamy make-out sessions in closets, meeting up at each other’s rooms after curfew, holding hands on Hogsmeade trips, all that shit Nagisa and Rei have been bragging about for years.”  He abandons Haruka’s collarbone and moves down to his chest.

“Yeah,” Haruka says, his voice suddenly getting very high pitched.  “Yeah, let’s – oh my god, _Rin_ –”

Rin’s future still isn’t decided yet, but his present is looking pretty good.

* * *

Two weeks later, Rin is woken in the middle of the night by someone humming a tune that sounds suspiciously similar to that song about floating lanterns from Tangled.

“Sousuke, shut up,” Rin mumbles in his pillow.  It comes out more like “Souuuss, shuu uuu,” so he turns his face to the side (which is much more effort than he wants to put into anything right now) and tries again.  “Sousuke, shut up.  Nobody needs to hear that.”

“I’m giving you a – what’s that weird expression muggles have? – a taste of your own medicine,” Sousuke says cheerfully.  “You’ve got your annoying whistling, I’ve got my annoying humming.  It evens out.”

Rin groans.  Why is he best friends with this asshole, again?

“So, I guess your late-night picnic with Makoto went well, then?” he asks.

The humming stops abruptly.  Rin grins into his pillow – mission accomplished.

“How did you know about that?” Sousuke asks.

“You’re not exactly that subtle,” Rin replies.  “And I saw you stealing food from the kitchens earlier.”

“Oh.”  Sousuke starts humming again, then, at a break in the song, adds, “Yeah, it went well.  Really well.”

“Fucking good for you.”  Rin is so tired, his face feels like it’s about to fall off if he doesn’t get back to sleep _now_.  “Haru and I talked about it, and he gives you his blessing.  So, shut up and let me sleep.  _Please_.”

Sousuke is blissfully silent for a few seconds after that, but then –

“Hey, Rin, how do you feel about double dates to Hogsmeade?”

Rin feigns loud snoring.

Sousuke just laughs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and then they went on a lot of dumb double dates which rei and nagisa crashed because they were pissed they weren't invited. the end. :)


End file.
